I frequently meet people who strike me as being unusually interesting. Accordingly, I remember once meeting Raymond Saner and Lichia Yiu, who are partners-in-life, at a conference of people dedicated to exploring the philosophical and scientific roots of gestalt therapy. That conference took place in the woods of Belgium, just outside Antwerp. I saw Raymond again at another such conference in Rome. Why are these people interesting to me?

The programme of a different kind of conference in which they participated provides a clue. In late spring/early summer of 2006 the DiploFoundation hosted a two-day international conference on the theme 'Challenges for Foreign Ministries: Managing Diplomatic Networks and Optimising Value' see webpage at (http://www.diplomacy.edu/conferences/mfa/default.asp). It was held in Geneva and drew 70 participants from 40 countries; 30 foreign ministries were represented, and a total of 24 papers were presented in nine sessions.

The programme described Raymond and Lichia as follows:

"Raymond Saner has 20 years of experience in teaching, training, and research in the field of diplomacy, international relations, business, and national development. He is also director of DiplomacyDialogue, and co-founder and director of the Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development, which has been based in Geneva since 1993 and teaches at Basle University and Sciences Po in Paris. He has published extensively on development-related issues and has 20 years of consulting experience with United Nations agencies and national governments and diplomatic academies.

"Lichia Yiu works with United Nations organisations and national governments in building internal capacities for transformation and performance improvement. She also works with multinational companies on issues related to developing trans-national leadership, building cross-border teams for technological innovation, and on business development in emerging markets. Her current research interests are human capital formation and quality of training and education, business diplomacy, multistakeholder relationships, and global leadership. She is president of the Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development in Geneva and a partner of Organisational Consultants Ltd. Hong Kong. She has published seven books and 40 articles in different professional journals."

One of the things that makes me feel good about them is that I know from listening to Raymond, reading what he has written, and seeing him in the company of my other gestalt colleagues, that his organisational skills were refined through his training in the application of gestalt therapy and his competence was enhanced through association with world class thinkers and trainers. It's fun to watch a colleague doing such great work.

I suppose everyone has his or her own criteria by which he or she can become alert to the fact that he or she has met an unusually interesting and accomplished person. I once met Mohammed Ali and sat across from him for over an hour at the gate waiting to board a plane. I could recognise someone whose image I had seen in the media. On the other hand, when I meet someone whose face I've never seen before, but someone who seems to have his or her own cadence, it catches my attention.

You can be intelligent. I give people intelligence tests to ascertain their cognitive abilities, and often while I'm in the midst of the testing, someone will get my attention because they are either really falling behind the curve or exceeding it.

You can be artistically gifted. I love to watch gifted artists work, and I find it amazing to see how they translate what they observe, or what is fantasy in their minds, into brush strokes on the canvass, forms out of clay, or textures in a weave.

You can be gifted as a communicator, and I marvel at people who clearly present an idea in such a way that others "get it". They get it and they go with it. Such people are winning in their effect. They could be talking about clothespins and they'd have a crowd.

I marvel at people whose gift is in movement. When they dance it is captivating.

People gifted in business seem to turn a profit wherever they go.

There is one kind of person, however, whose attractiveness and fascination for me has a staying power that excels all these other kinds of people.

Jesus was praying, talking to God his Father, in front of His disciples shortly before he died, and He said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

I have found that there is a quality about such a person, that person who truly knows God, that exceeds all else. That person can be the most unsophisticated in terms of background and education. They could hold down a mundane job and not have met with anyone who remotely works at the United Nations or attends international conferences in Europe. They might never have thrown a pot. They might never have painted a painting or mesmerised people in a speech or a sermon. They might never have accomplished much in the way most people count such things, but if they truly know God through knowing Jesus, there is a simple, humble "knowing" that is settling and certain, and they seem to yield to life with a serenity and acceptance that I find both attractive and interesting.

Why? Because they are, each one of them, walking, talking miracles. Such people are the artwork of God. They have each come to know God in a unique way; so, each of them has a story to tell and a reason for why they believe as they do. There are no cookie-cutter people in the Kingdom of God. There may be lockstep counterfeits and simplistic reductions of what God is like and what He is doing in the lives of people in this world, but the genuine item is unique. The Bible says that angels long to peer into the matters of salvation, and I believe that they never tire of doing so because in every case it's a new story over which to marvel.

So, I do meet interesting people. I have met interesting people. Many of them live right here in Bermuda.